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Towards a Regional Community of Practice in Africa:

Accelerating the mainstreaming of Natural Capital

Accounting through regional integration

Synthesis report of the Africa Forum on Natural Capital

Accounting and recommendations for future actions

Kampala, Uganda

21 November 2019

22 January 2020 | of 57

Towards a Regional Community of Practice in Africa:

Accelerating the mainstreaming of Natural Capital

Accounting through regional integration

Synthesis report of the Africa Forum on Natural Capital

Accounting and recommendations for future actions

December 2019

This report should be cited as Reuter K., Ahlroth S., Castaneda J.P. (2019) Africa Regional Natural Capital

Accounting Policy Forum: Workshop Report and Next Steps. Report Prepared for Wealth Accounting and

the Valuation of Ecosystem Services [WAVES], Global Program on Sustainability (GPS), Gaborone

Declaration for Sustainability in Africa [GDSA], and United Nations Statistics Division [UNSD]. Pp. 57

Acknowledgements

This event was organized by the World Bank’s Global Program on Sustainability (GPS), the

Gaborone Declaration for the Sustainability of Africa (GDSA) Secretariat and the United Nations

Statistics Division (UNSD). Financial support was provided by World Bank; as well as by the

Government of Botswana, UNSD and UN Environment that funded the participation of selected

Government delegates. This workshop would not have been possible without the participation of

many key organizations and individuals. Their experience, knowledge, and hard work have been

essential to the outputs of the workshop, including a co-production of a high-level roadmap, and

we extend our sincere gratitude for their significant contributions. We also wish to thank Steve

Bass for valuable comments on an ealier version of this report.

22 January 2020 | of 57

Contents Executive summary ........................................................................................................................................... 4

1. Background ................................................................................................................................................... 8

Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) in Africa ................................................................................................. 8

Outcomes of the Forum ............................................................................................................................... 9

2. The Status of Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) in Africa ........................................................................ 10

Overall findings from the Pre-Forum NCA Questionnaire ........................................................................ 15

3. Recommendations for a Community of Practice ...................................................................................... 16

Lessons learned: hearing from other Communities of Practice ............................................................... 16

Consulting on the shape of a Community of Practice .............................................................................. 17

Proposals for the NCA Community of Practice in Africa ........................................................................... 17

An Interim Working Group for the establishment of the NCA Community of Practice .......................... 22

Commitments made by forum organisers ................................................................................................ 22

4. Conclusions and next steps ........................................................................................................................ 23

Annex 1: Forum Agenda ................................................................................................................................. 23

Annex 2: List of Participants ........................................................................................................................... 26

Government ................................................................................................................................................ 26

Non-Government Organisations ................................................................................................................ 27

Annex 3: Pre-Workshop Questionnaire - Country summaries ..................................................................... 30

Annex 4: Feedback from Participants on the Shape of the Community of Practice ................................... 50

Annex 5: Interim Working Group for the establishment of the NCA Community of Practice .................... 57

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Background:

Africa’s natural resources – including forests, wildlife and minerals – play a crucial role in the continent’s economies. According to The Changing Wealth of Nation 2018, natural capital accounts for between 30% and 50% of the total wealth of countries across Africa.1 Ecosystem services2 provided by natural resources form the basis for many economic activities in Africa – including crop production, fuel wood production, and tourism – especially among the poorest sectors of the community.3 As Africa’s population grows, however, the sustainability of these ecosystem services— and by extension the livelihoods of the people who rely on these ecosystem services — are threatened. It is clear that there is a need to manage and measure the trade-offs associated with development at the cost of nature.

Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) – underpinned by the System of Environmental-Economic

Accounts (SEEA) as the international statistical standard for environmental-economic data – is

an important tool for evidence-based policy making on the role of nature in sound economic

planning and development. 4 NCA allows countries to systematically measure and value their

natural resource assets in both monetary and non-monetary terms. When mainstreamed into

decision-making, this information can allow nations to appreciate, understand, and manage

assets about which they previously had limited information.

In Africa, the development and implementation of Natural Capital Accounts5 has been ongoing

since the late 1980s,6 with dozens of pilot accounts developed by numerous countries across

the region.7 In the past, NCA efforts have been discontinuous and fragmented. With NCA now

gaining global momentum, however, governments are seeking embedded and routine

approaches to mainstream the results of accounts into decision making.

African Forum on Natural Capital Accounting:

In November 2019, the first Africa Forum on Natural Capital Accounting was held in Kampala,

Uganda and brought together 72 participants from 18 African countries as well as regional and

international agencies working on NCA. The forum was co-organised by the World Bank Wealth

Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) programme, the Secretariat of

the Gaborone Declaration for Sustainability in Africa (GDSA), and the United Nations Statistics

Division (UNSD).8 This Forum built on engagement started in 2016, when WAVES and the GDSA9

held a first meeting to gauge interest on whether the momentum on NCA in Africa could benefit

1 Lange, Glenn-Marie; Wodon, Quentin; Carey, Kevin. 2018. The Changing Wealth of Nations 2018 : Building a Sustainable Future. Washington, DC: World Bank. World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/29001 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO. 2 Ecosystems provide a large number of services necessary for human survival that range from a reliable flow of clean water, to carbon sequestration, and productive soils. 3 African Development Bank (2015) Payment for Ecosystem Services – A promising Tool for Natural Resource Management in Africa. AFDB CIF Knowledge Series 4 More information available online: https://seea.un.org/ 5 Development in this context referring to the production of accounts and implementation referring to the use of accounts in decision-making. 6 Reuter, K.E., Juhn, D., Portela, R., and Venter, J. 2016. Natural Capital Accounting across the Gaborone Declaration for Sustainability in Africa: A Desktop Scoping. Report Prepared for the Gaborone Declaration for Sustainability in Africa: Gaborone, Botswana. Pp. 188 7 More information available online: http://www.gaboronedeclaration.com 8 More information available online: https://www.wavespartnership.org/en/forum-natural-capital-accounting-better-policy 9 The 2016 workshop report can be found online: http://www.gaboronedeclaration.com/s/NCA-Workshop-Report-Compressed-n6jt.pdf

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from a regional Community of Practice among practitioners, as well as a 2019 workshop

organised by the UNSD, Statistics South Arica, GDSA and UN Environment Programme on the

SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting for countries in Africa, where a Community of

Practice was also discussed.

The Africa Forum on Natural Capital Accounting was convened to provide a space for African

stakeholders to shape a Community of Practice on NCA in Africa. Participants were encouraged

to identify common challenges and opportunities, and to consider how regional support could

promote the mainstreaming of natural capital considerations into policy. The outputs of the

Forum included recommendations on implementing an effective Community of Practice for

preparing and using NCA in Africa10 and this workshop report.

The Forum demonstrated the willingness of countries and agencies to share their expertise and

experience. A pre-forum NCA questionnaire completed by 16 African countries, combined with

information collected by the UNSD, highlighted good progress on NCA in Africa on a range of

accounts with some success in mainstreaming NCA outputs into national policies, plans, and

other decisions. In addition, the questionnaires highlighted barriers to implementing NCA,

including financial resources availability, lack of statistics/data for accounts, and lack of technical

expertise (Figure 1). Lessons learned were also shared, including the need to ensure good

coordination at the national level on NCA while building strong technical capacity and links to

policy-relevant topics and decision-makers.

Figure 1: Hurdles faced in the implementation of NCA as captured by questionnaires administered in 2016 and 2019.

Recommendations for a Community of Practice on NCA in Africa:

The objective of the Forum was to shape a Community of Practice on NCA in Africa. Throughout

the day, it became clear that there was strong support for a Community of Practice, particularly

given the importance of social processes, such as networking, peer support, and access to high-

quality learning and conversations, in the development and use of natural capital accounts. It

10 Building upon the 2016 Natural Capital Accounting Statement drafted following the regional NCA workshop organized on 23 June 2016 in Nairobi, Kenya by the GDSA and the World Bank WAVES programme. The Declaration can be read on the GDSA website, here: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52026c1ee4b0ee324ff265f3/t/580aac15b3db2b5c74f77c70/1477094421538/GDSA+NCA+Statement+Final.pdf

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was noted several times that the return-on-investment from a regional Community of Practice

could be more than the resources spent on the platform itself. The participants recognised the

benefits of establishing a mechanism to share experiences in NCA and work collaboratively to

apply accounting principles in support of natural capital outcomes. No such systematic and

sustained regional collaboration network currently exists in Africa for NCA, though there have

been a number of standalone regional training workshops, bilateral exchanges, and some early

work by a few institutions and entities.

For the Community of Practice to be successful, and based on lessons learned from other

Communities of Practice in Africa, it was clear that the following elements were needed: 1) clear

and achievable objectives for the Community of Practice with a timeline attached; 2) grounding

of the Community of Practice within the region and building on existing work; and 3) enabling

conditions such as Focal Points within national countries.

The Community of Practice can be implemented at relatively low cost, but there must be some

resources allocated towards it to – at minimum – fund the cost of staff time to manage the

Community of Practice as well as funding for an annual meeting. Given that coordination and

annual meeting costs are unlikely to be provided initially by governments (though in some cases,

governments may be willing and able to co-finance trainings and workshops), such catalytic roles

might be played by non-government entities including the GDSA Secretariat, World Bank, UNSD,

UNEP, UNECA, Natural Capital Coalition, and others.

Based on discussions at the Forum, the organizers propose that the NCA Community of Practice

in Africa be established through a six-month start-up phase, followed by the first year of

implementation (culminating in an in-person annual meeting in mid-2021), leading into rolling

two-year implementation phases. These implementation phases would be designed to ensure

the Community of Practice remains goal-oriented and focused on relevant issues with high

traction at both country and regional scales.

Key messages and next steps

In bringing together relevant expertise and experience from African countries and around the

world, the Africa Forum on Natural Capital Accounting held in Kampala in November 2019

provided a strong platform to further advance NCA in the region. There is important experience

in NCA across Africa on which to build, and a clear policy demand for integrated information to

support sustainable development policy and analysis. Establishing a Community of Practice is a

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real and practical step towards supporting best practices in NCA, by building capacity and

momentum across the African continent to mainstream NCA into statistical production and policy

in all African countries. As such, the Forum closed with representatives from the World Bank, the

GDSA Secretariat, UNSD, and UNEP each committing to see this Community of Practice launched

and resourced.

Building on the momentum initiated during the Forum, next steps will include:

• A call for interested organizations and institutions, including the Forum organizers, to

commit resources towards the Community of Practice and the identification of a host

organization to lead in the coordination of the Community’s activities;

• The convening of a volunteer Working Group for the Establishment of the NCA

Community of Practice which – together with key institutions including the Forum

organizers and other interested organizations – will develop a Community of Practice

workplan for input and implementation; and

• The planning of the next Forum, at which the Community of Practice can convene to

continue its lessons sharing and grow its reach.

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1. BACKGROUND

Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) in Africa

Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) – underpinned by the System of Environmental-Economic Accounts (SEEA) as the international statistical standard – has been recognized as an important tool for evidence-based economic planning and development.11 NCA has also been identified as a useful framework for the purpose of monitoring and reporting on the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and can play an important role in informing the policy cycle more broadly.

In 2012, the United Nations Statistical Commission adopted the System for Environmental and Economic Accounts (SEEA) as a global standard to provide a coherent, internationally agreed set of concepts for producing many types of natural capital accounts. Additional material on methodology has been produced by a range of agencies and an experimental framework is now available to account for the ecosystem services provided by natural capital.

In Africa, the development of natural capital accounts has been ongoing since the late 1980s, with dozens of pilot accounts developed by numerous countries across the region. A 2016 summary report by Conservation International (CI) and the Gaborone Declaration for Sustainability in Africa (GDSA)12 highlighted the substantial progress in NCA by GDSA countries.13 In many cases, these initiatives have been supported by external donors and partners, including the Forest Investment Program (FIP), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), World Bank Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) program, United Nations Environment (UNEP), and the United Nations Statistical Division (UNSD). It is clear that with NCA now gaining global momentum, countries are exploring more comprehensive solutions to mainstream the results of accounting into decision making.

At the continental level, NCA has been increasingly recognized as an important vehicle for sustainable development. In Africa, the GDSA is a leading regional action platform which prioritises the relevance and implementation of NCA for sustainable natural resource management. The GDSA was agreed to by ten African Heads of State in 2012 in the context of the Rio +20 Summit as a collective commitment to sustainable development in the region, and has now grown to 14 member countries.14 The objective of the Declaration is, “to ensure that the contributions of natural capital to sustainable economic growth, maintenance and improvement of social capital and human well-being are quantified and integrated into development and business practice.” Under this mandate, the GDSA is leading on a number of NCA initiatives in the region, with a five-year impact report published in 2017 showing that GDSA member countries were significantly more likely to be implementing NCA at a national scale than 37 other countries in sub-Saharan Africa.15

Another important entity moving forward NCA is the Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) partnership,16 a World Bank-led global initiative, which aims to promote sustainable development by ensuring that natural resources are mainstreamed in development planning and decision making and incorporated in national economic accounts. 11 More information available online: https://seea.un.org/ 12 Reuter, K.E., Juhn, D., Portela, R., and Venter, J. 2016. Natural Capital Accounting across the Gaborone Declaration for Sustainability in Africa: A Desktop Scoping. Report Prepared for the Gaborone Declaration for Sustainability in Africa: Gaborone, Botswana. Pp. 188 13 More information available online: http://www.gaboronedeclaration.com 14 The fourteen GDSA member countries are: Angola, Botswana, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. 15 More information available online: http://www.gaboronedeclaration.com/gdsa-documents/the-gdsa-five-year-report 16 More information available online: http://www.wavespartnership.org

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Active in 13 countries on the African continent17 – along with countries in other areas of the world – the partnership was a co-organizer of the forum being reported here.

Finally, the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) is committed to the advancement of the global statistical system. UNSD, in particular, coordinates the development of international statistical standards and norms, such as the SEEA with its subsystems, and supports countries’ efforts in strengthening their national statistical systems and implementation of the SEEA and related statistical standards. UNSD also serves at the secretariat to the UN Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Accounting (UNCEEA) that functions as an intergovernmental body to provide the overall vision, coordination, prioritization and direction in the field of environmental-economic accounting and supporting statistics.

Recognizing the importance of NCA in measuring progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals and the green economy more broadly, all three focal initiatives above – the Secretariat of the GDSA and the World Bank WAVES program, in partnership with the UNSD – came together to hold the first Africa Forum on Natural Capital Accounting on the 21st of November 2019, in Kampala, Uganda, following the fourth global Forum on Natural Capital Accounting for Better Policy.18

Outcomes of the Forum

The objective of the Africa Forum on Natural Capital Accounting was to provide a space for countries in Africa to shape a regional Community of Practice on NCA, where participants were encouraged to identify common challenges and opportunities, as well as identify ways in which countries can support each other in mainstreaming natural capital considerations into policy.

This Forum’s outcomes included recommendations on how to implement an effective Community of Practice that can contribute to mainstreaming NCA applications in Africa.19 These recommendations are compiled within this workshop report, which also includes the results of a pre-forum questionnaire completed by representatives from African countries. This, together with survey data from the UNSD, provides a baseline of existing NCA work in Africa, and helps with identifying synergies and areas for collaboration, including a roadmap for the Community of Practice.

This report is structured in a series of sections. Section 2 summarises the information collected via pre-forum NCA questionnaire, which were completed by forum participants from 16 different African countries in advance of the forum (see Annex 3). In Section 3, the recommendations around a Community of Practice are presented, including a summary of ‘lessons learned’ from other Communities of Practice in Africa. Section 4 concludes the report and provides motivation for moving forward.

Annexes to this report include the forum agenda (Annex 1); participant list (Annex 2); summaries

of responses to the NCA questionnaire (Annex 3); feedback captured from the participants on the

shape of the Community of Practice (Annex 4); and details on the interim Working Group on the

establishment of the NCA Community of Practice (Annex 5).

17 WAVES partner countries include: Benin, Botswana, Code d’Ivoire, Egypt, Madagascar, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia 18 More information available online: https://www.wavespartnership.org/en/forum-natural-capital-accounting-better-policy 19 Building upon the 2016 Natural Capital Accounting Statement drafted following the regional NCA workshop organized on 23 June 2016 in Nairobi, Kenya by the GDSA and WAVES. The Declaration can be read on the GDSA website, here: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52026c1ee4b0ee324ff265f3/t/580aac15b3db2b5c74f77c70/1477094421538/GDSA+NCA+Statement+Final.pdf

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Photograph 1: Group photo of Africa NCA Forum participants.

2. THE STATUS OF NATURAL CAPITAL ACCOUNTING (NCA) IN AFRICA

As part of the preparation for the forum, country delegations were asked to complete a

questionnaire concerning natural capital accounting in their countries (hereafter referred to the

pre-forum NCA questionnaire). The same questionnaire was also completed by countries

participating in the 2016 workshop organised by WAVES and the GDSA20 and supplements a

2017 survey undertaken by the UNSD on the status of SEEA implementation across the world,

including Africa (Figure 1). The purpose of this questionnaire was to better understand the status

of NCA across the countries participating in the forum to inform the next steps forward,

particularly with an NCA Community of Practice.

This section summarises the findings from the submissions provided by participations from 16

countries. Short country summaries, based on information from the questionnaires, can be

found in Annex 3. The findings from the pre-forum NCA questionnaires are grouped under five

themes: (i) self-assessment of state of information on natural capital; (ii) progress on

implementation; (iii) policy linkages; and (iv) barriers and lessons learned.

Self-assessment of state of information on natural capital

Given that NCA is aimed at increasing understanding of a country’s natural capital, countries

were asked to describe the general state of knowledge of natural capital in their country – from

very poor, through to poor, moderate, good and very good. Nine countries rated their

knowledge as either Moderate or Good with the rest providing ratings of Poor or Very Poor.

Interestingly, with the exception of two countries, all countries provided an indication of the

major threats facing their natural capital, but only 11 listed specific information sources that

Government could access, regarding the status of the country’s natural capital. Broadly

speaking, the responses indicated that there was a general lack of data coordination of

information which became a problem for communicating messages about natural capital to

decision makers and the public. The lack of coordination was also problematic in trying to assess

20 The 2016 workshop report can be found online: http://www.gaboronedeclaration.com/s/NCA-Workshop-Report-Compressed-n6jt.pdf

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questions of sustainability and environmental capacity which require a degree of data

integration. It was also the case in some countries that public data and information on natural

capital were preliminary, primarily qualitative, or not regularly/systematically updated.

Figure 1: Representation from across Africa at the Forum including both government and non-government participants (left) and status of SEEA implementation in Africa based on the 2017 Global Assessment of Environmental-Economic Accounting and Supporting Statistics and subsequent updates through consultation with international agencies and donors (right).

Progress on implementation of NCA

The responding countries are at different stages in the implementation of natural capital

accounting (Figure 1). Table 2.1, below, provides a summary of the types of accounts that are

desired as well as those that are demonstrated/established in each of the 16 countries. The

information in the table is compiled from both the 2017 Global Assessment of Environmental-

Economic Accounting and Supporting Statistics carried out by UNSD21 as well as the pre-forum

questionnaire. This information could be useful in establishing common areas of interest across

the countries during discussions in the NCA Community of Practice.

Institutional coordination for NCA

In most countries, steering committees were in place to facilitate coordination of NCA activities,

generally taking six months to establish. The lead agencies for NCA varied across the countries

although usually it was either a statistical office or environmental agency. In some cases, the

lead agency varied by type of account. In all cases, there were a combination of government

agencies involved, although no standard pattern emerged, thus highlighting the importance of

establishing effective institutional arrangements. The mix of agencies included ministries for

environment, finance, economy, planning, statistics and various industry sectors (e.g.,

agriculture, forestry, water and tourism).

21 More information available online: https://seea.un.org/content/global-assessment-environmental-economic-accounting

22 January 2020 | of 57

The responses concerning the general resourcing of NCA work suggested that in most countries,

there has been a strong connection to international support from the World Bank, Conservation

International, GIZ, the UN Statistics Division, UN Economic Commission for Africa, the UN

Environment Programme and others. Support from national governments was evident in most,

but not all countries. Financing and resource limitations was identified, however, as a key barrier

for implementation.

Global implementation of Natural Capital Accounting (NCA)

Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) has been recognized as an important tool for evidence-based

policy making regarding the role of nature within sound economic planning and development

activity. At a global level, NCA has been identified as a useful framework for monitoring and

reporting on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development

Goals (SDGs). Connections to NCA have also been established with various natural capital

initiatives such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Aichi targets, the TEEB (The

Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity), and the Natural Capital Protocol, where the SEEA can

provide a common measurement framework and data for monitoring and analysis.

The implementation of NCA in the public sector is standardised through the System of

Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) framework. Implementation of the SEEA is now

widespread with the 2017 Global Assessment of Environmental-Economic Accounting and

Supporting Statistics reporting that more than 90 countries either have NCA programs in place or

planned to commence (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Countries using the SEEA, as captured by a 2017 UNSD survey.

Table 2.1: Summary of desired and demonstrated/established natural capital accounts.

Country

Agr

icu

ltu

re

Bio

div

ersi

ty

Car

bo

n

Eco

syst

em

Emis

sio

n

Ener

gy

Fish

erie

s

Fore

st/

Tim

ber

Fres

hw

ater

/

Aq

uat

ic/L

ake

Lan

d

Min

eral

s

Soil

Was

te

Wat

er

TOTA

L

Botswana Desired X X X 3

Demonstrated/Established X X X X X 5

Egypt Desired X 1

Demonstrated/Established 0

Ghana Desired X X X X X X 6

Demonstrated/Established X X 2

Kenya Desired X X X X X X X 7

Demonstrated/Established X X X X 4

Lesotho Desired X X X X 4


Liberia Desired X X X X 4


Madagascar Desired X X X X X X X X X X X 11

Demonstrated/Established X X X 3

Malawi Desired X X X X X X X X X X X X X X 14


Morocco Desired X X 2

Demonstrated/Established X X 2

Mozambique Desired X X X X X X X X X X X X X X 14


Namibia Desired X X X X X X X 7

Demonstrated/Established X X X X X X 6

Nigeria Desired NR

Demonstrated/Established NR

Senegal Desired X X X X 4


South Africa Desired X X X X 4

Demonstrated/Established X X X X X X X X 8

Uganda Desired X X X X X X X X 8

Demonstrated/Established X X X X X X 6

Zambia Desired X X X 3


TOTAL Desired 4 8 8 8 9 5 4 4 4 9 6 6 9 6 90

Demonstrated/Established 1 1 1 4 0 6 3 8 4 3 3 1 0 6 41

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Policy linkages to NCA efforts

Throughout the questionnaire, there were various places in which countries were asked to

provide information on the linkages between natural capital, natural capital accounting, and

policy. Many countries provided examples of links between natural capital and policy – for

example in terms of establishing protected areas – but there were far fewer examples showing

a direct connection between natural capital accounting and policy. Botswana, Kenya, South

Africa, and Zambia were among the countries that indicated that specific accounts had been

able to inform certain national policies and plans.

In part, this reflects that NCA is relatively new but there also seems to be a challenge in

engagement with decision makers and creating high-level awareness and understanding.

Nonetheless, all respondents saw many opportunities for potential use of NCA either in terms

of the development of national level development plans and strategies or in terms of theme

specific policies and legislation. Almost all countries noted that NCA could be drawn in to

support reporting requirements at the national level (e.g., via state of environment reporting)

and at the international level (e.g., for coordination of reporting to UNFCCC, CBD and the SDGs).

Barriers and lessons

The final area summarised here concerns the barriers to implementation identified by countries

and the lessons learned. Table 2.2 summarises the six barriers to implementation that countries

were asked to rate in importance. What stands out, based on a simple aggregation of scores,22

is that the lack of financial resource availability, lack of statistics/data, and the lack of technical

expertise were the top three concerns. This was slightly different in order from the 2016

administration of this survey (Figure 3). This table could provide a good starting point for

discussion within the NCA Community of Practice to better understand the precise nature of

the barriers to NCA, and in turn help to identify common areas for discussion and targeting of

capacity building.

Figure 3: Hurdles faced in the implementation of NCA as captured by surveys administered in 2016 and 2019.

22 Since not all countries used a pure 1-6 ranking, the simple sums are not directly comparable but the scores are nevertheless informative.

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Table 2.2: Barriers to NCA implementation

* The total is the simple sum of the country entries. NR = No Response.

Overall findings from the Pre-Forum NCA Questionnaire

Concerning implementation, the pre-forum NCA

questionnaires highlighted that it is certainly

possible to undertake NCA in Africa, but that there

is no single, ‘silver bullet’ solution to ensure easy

implementation. Different approaches to NCA are

both needed and desirable, as this allows for NCA

to be suited to country contexts and specific policy

needs. It is clear too, that different challenges will

emerge in different countries and the chosen

solutions will vary from country to country due to,

for example, differences in institutional settings,

data availability, technical expertise and

environmental and economic situation.

The responses to the questionnaires underscore

that the embedding and mainstreaming of NCA is

something that takes time. As such, there is a need to accelerate learning around NCA, so that

decisions can be informed by its processes and outputs. There is ample scope for an exchange

of experiences given the quite similar situations in countries on the African continent find

themselves with respect to the composition and use of their natural capital (Table 2.1).

Country

Lack of

statistics/

data

Inter-

institutional

coordination

Lack of

technical

expertise

Absence

of demand

for NCA

Financial

resource

availability

Disarticulati

on between

statistical

registries

and NCA

Ratings (1 = largest barrier)

Botswana 2 1 1 2 1 1

Egypt 1 6 3 5 2 4

Ghana 3 6 2 5 1 4

Kenya 2 4 3 6 1 5

Lesotho 4 2 1 NR 3 NR

Liberia NR NR NR NR NR NR

Madagascar 2 2 3 3 1 1

Malawi NR NR NR NR NR NR

Morocco 2 1 3 NR 1 1

Mozambique 1 1 1 2 1 2

Namibia 2 2 1 1 1 2

Nigeria 1 2 4 5 3 6

Senegal 2 6 4 3 1 5

South Africa 3 5 2 4 1 6

Uganda 1 3 4 6 2 5

Zambia 1 3 2 6 4 5

TOTAL * 27 44 34 48 23 47

Figure 4: NCA involves a number of different processes. The Community of Practice would aim to facilitate social, technical, and policy processes.

22 January 2020 | of 57

In addition, the pre-workshop questionnaire illustrates that many countries have made

substantial progress in mapping out their near-term plans for the development and

implementation of NCA. There was specific and repeated reference to the need for targeting

quick, policy-relevant accounts (to build traction for additional accounting efforts) that would

help answer important policy questions and build high-level support; it is clear that NCA

depends on not just technical and policy processes but on social processes as well (Figure 4;

courtesy of M. Driver, SANBI). The survey concluded with a ‘lessons learned’ section (Figure 5),

where inter-institutional coordination, working with decision-makers, and ensuring adequate

capacity ranked as the top three most important lessons learned. Many countries that

completed the NCA questionnaire expressed interest in expanding their accounting efforts to

new accounts, as well as to continued iteration of existing accounts (Table 2.1).

Figure 5: Top three lessons learned in implementing NCA, as captured by the pre-workshop survey.

3. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

The objective of the Forum was to offer the space for stakeholders from Africa to discuss a

potential Community of Practice on NCA. The participants recognised the potential benefits from

establishing a mechanism to share experiences in NCA and work collaboratively to implement

and apply best practice accounting in support of natural capital outcomes. It was noted that no

such regional collaboration network currently exists in Africa for NCA, though there have been a

number of bilateral exchanges and some early work by a few institutions and entities on the

continent.

Lessons learned: hearing from other Communities of Practice

A Community of Practice is generally established for the specific purpose of learning and sharing

of approaches, experiences, and best practices; is driven by the requirements of the

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participants; and has a degree of overarching coordination and support. More specifically, and

as noted during the workshop, a Community of Practice is, “A group of people working in a

shared domain of human endeavour, who learn how to do something better through regular

and diverse engagement with each other.”

To promote reflection and learning, the Forum included a panel of four individuals, who shared

lessons learned from their experiences participating in other Communities of Practice in Africa

and in Latin America. These included the African Leadership Group on Biodiversity

Mainstreaming, a national Community of Practice on NCA in South Africa, and a Latin America

regional Community of Practice on NCA hosted by the Economic Commission for Latin America

and the Caribbean (ECLAC). Elements and common themes from these four panellists’

experiences are embedded throughout the report. Collectively, they emphasised the

importance of:

• the enabling environment for the Community, including a grounding in a regional

body/institution and links to relevant regional and international bodies;

• Inclusion – casting a wide net for participations, while still being clear about what types

of expertise and interests are most relevant to the Community;

• Clear governance as a prerequisite for success, with the need for a coordinator to push

the Community forward and keep momentum high;

• Activities that are fit-for-purpose that build social networks while providing support and

affirmation to those who often work on isolated projects; and

• The importance for the Community of Practice to have clear objectives and build on

existing work, with articulated goals and targets set by its members.

Consulting on the shape of a Community of Practice

The Forum was structured to allow for the participants to provide targeted inputs at three

points during the day (see the agenda in Annex 1):

1) Following the presentation on ‘Natural Capital Accounting in Africa’, participants

contributions were invited from the floor;

2) Across two break-out sessions in the afternoon, participants discussed what an African

Community of Practice should do and how such a Community of Practice could be

organised; and

3) In a closing plenary session, facilitated by the GDSA Secretariat, final contributions

were recorded from participants.

Inputs from participants who had attended a regional workshop on NCA in Pretoria, South

Africa just a few weeks earlier (and where the subject of an Africa Community of Practice had

also been discussed), were also heard.

These contributions are summarised, below, with additional feedback captured in Annex 4.

Proposals for the NCA Community of Practice in Africa

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Purpose of the NCA Community of Practice in Africa

At the broadest level, the Community of Practice will support best practices in NCA, by building capacity and momentum across the African continent to most effectively mainstream NCA into statistical production and policy. The NCA Community of Practice would not directly implement national-level or indeed regional programming, although any such programming would be expected to be informed by the NCA Community of Practice and also provides impetus for the existence of the Community of Practice itself.

Activities to be undertaken under an NCA Community of Practice in Africa

There was clear alignment across the workshop participants regarding the kinds of activities that the NCA Community of Practice should be able to deliver, including those that would be possible within the short-term as ‘quick wins’.

It was proposed that the Community of Practice be implemented using regular meetings of both producers and users of accounts, as well as through south-south exchanges, practitioner-level dialogue of NCA, and the coordination of training and development activities among the countries. More specifically, the activities would include:

• Annual meetings: There was strong and unanimous support for an annual meeting to serve as a foundation for the Community of Practice, as this would promote lessons sharing, trust building, networking, learning and help keep the Community of Practice forward-looking (by aligning the Community of Practice with ‘windows of opportunity’).23

• Occasional meetings: Annual meetings would be supplemented by ad hoc regional or local meetings, as well as side events organized at regional and international events (e.g. UNEA, AMCEN, CBD COPs). Such side events could also serve a secondary objective of joint advocacy or ensuring common messaging regarding NCA topics across a number of countries. These occasional meetings could also take place alongside other communities of practice in the region.

• Working groups (virtual + in person): Themed working groups were proposed as a way to tackle different issues and topics within NCA (including around the private sector, on technical issues, cross-cutting issues, and transboundary issues). These working groups could work together virtually (e.g. providing peer review24 or co-producing briefs and case studies), could participate in training together, and could meet in person – funding allowing.

• Joint capacity building: Workshops and trainings were mentioned a number of times as a way in which to support capacity building and awareness raising.

• Online platforms: A range of online platforms and databases were mentioned that could serve to facilitate communication between the participants and also share case studies and reports.

• Sharing best practice: A number of activities around sharing best practices and success stories were raised (including through webinars and development of case study templates). This also included ideas regarding targeted learning exchanges between countries. The purpose of such South-South exchanges would allow Community of Practice participants the ability to see how NCA is being implemented and main-

23 These annual meetings could be organized alongside existing meetings or be stand-alone meetings. It was noted that consensus statements and declarations arising from annual meetings are an important part of the Community of Practice. 24 For example, peer review of NBSAPs, NDPs, and mainstreaming plans.

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streamed elsewhere. Alternatively, South-South exchanges might be structured to allow countries to be paired to undertake long-term training and knowledge exchange.

These activities, categorized under a set of high-level outcomes in Table 3.1, were further differentiated between those that should happen within the first year of a Community of Practice and those that would take place over a longer period of time (see Table 3.2).

Governance of the NCA Community of Practice in Africa

Participants were asked to consider governance issues regarding membership, coordination,

operating principles, and first-year implementation targets. There was reasonably broad

alignment regarding the discussions on the governance of the Community of Practice, and the

following section summarizes these discussions. While there was unanimous support for many

key governance issues, there remained options for discussion and exploration.

The governance issues for which there was clear support and broad consensus included:

• Operating principles: The Community of Practice would be non-hierarchical and

inclusive, acting as a safe space for discussion as well as a vehicle for advocacy for NCA.

Principles deployed by other successful CoPs can be drawn upon.

• Membership: The Community of Practice would be inclusive and open to all African

countries, with two Focal Points per country. There was also agreement that the

Community of Practice would be open to non-Government entities like international

institutions, civil society, and the private sector. Volunteers within the membership

would be important in moving forward activities and that the Community of Practice

would only be successful if this was a self-driven group of individuals and entities.25

• Working groups: There was agreement on the utility of working groups as a way to

organise members around common interests and activities. Different working groups

could have different individuals or entities leading/coordinating them.

• Coordination + alignment with regional hubs: There was agreement that a regional

institution would be well placed to serve as the coordinator or convener of the

Community of Practice, and that this coordinator or convener would most likely be a

non-governmental organisation. It would be important for the Community of Practice

to align and link with many relevant regional institutions, policies, and bodies (e.g. the

African Union), even if those entities are not the coordinator or convener.

• Language of the Community of Practice: The language of the Community of Practice

would be English to begin with, but with an aspiration to expand to French and

Portuguese with time and increased membership (dependent on resources).

Areas that require additional exploration and discussion:

25 It is anticipated that a range of experts from countries will participate in the NCA Community of Practice, including individuals in government, parastatal, academic, and other entities. In addition, the structure of the NCA Community of Practice could provide opportunities for the involvement of, and coordination with, non-state actors as partners. For example, partners could support one aspect of the Community of Practice (e.g., provision of technical experts for the workshops; online outreach) or they could support the involvement of key individuals from core or affiliated countries. These non-state actors could include NGOs, multilateral and bilateral entities, academic and research institutions and other actors. External experts would be able to participate in the Community of Practice, including by attending annual meetings (though resources for the Community of Practice would be used first to support participants from Governments on the understanding that non-Government entities can support the participation of their staff).

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• Membership: It was noted that a Terms of Reference would need to be developed for

the Focal Points as well as more discussion on who the Focal Points might be. Options

to explore include whether the two Focal Points would have different focus areas and

expertise (e.g. a technical Focal Point and a policy-oriented Focal Point). In some

countries, there are existing national steering committees or communities of practice

focused on NCA and the Focal Points would be asked to link the Africa Community of

Practice’s work to those national efforts.

• Coordination: There was debate around which specific (non-governmental) institution

or entity would act as the coordinator or convener, though there was strong support

for the GDSA Secretariat among the participants as well as support for the UN

Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

As this discussion had clear implications on resource availability and the ability to ensure

momentum in a variety of areas without being held back unduly by the politics or

procedures of the coordinating agency, the organisers of the workshop took note of the

participant’s suggestions and accepted the participants’ mandate to explore the issue

further following the workshop.

Looking forward, many participants noted that the Community of Practice should remain

informal, flexible in approach, and with a light framework that could act promptly and would not

require large investment of resources.

High-level roadmap for implementation of the NCA Community of Practice in Africa

For the Community of Practice to be successful, it is clear that the following elements need to articulated and/or in place: 1) information on demand for the NCA and also gaps in knowledge; 2) clear objectives for the Community of Practice with a timeline attached; 3) grounding of the Community of Practice within the region and building on existing work; and 4) a fully-funded coordinator with funding for an annual meeting, at minimum. Many participants noted that the Community of Practice would need to have an informal approach with light coordination to best serve its many members' needs, but that it could be run on a relatively small annual budget. Table 3.1 lists activities that were considered reasonable and important to implement within the first year of the Community of Practice taking shape.

Based on the feedback collected from the participants, it is proposed that the NCA Community

of Practice in Africa be established through a six-month start-up phase, followed by the first

year of implementation (culminating in an in-person annual meeting in mid-2021), leading into

rolling two-year implementation phases. These implementation phases would allow the

Community of Practice to remain goal-oriented and focused on issues relevant at both the

country and the regional scale. Table 3.2 proposes for discussion, an initial timeline for the

establishment of the NCA Community of Practice noting key steps and possible timings; this

timeline was not presented to forum delegates but has been developed in post-forum scoping.

Table 3.1: Suggested priority activities for the first year of the Community of Practice.

Governance + Establishing the Community of Practice

Activities within the Community of Practice

Strategy for launching the Community of Practice Networking and dialogue

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• Developing a roadmap/action plan, based on quick scoping and assessment of need, as well as understanding of resources available to fund ‘quick wins’ and longer-term work under the Community of Practice. This would be developed together with the informal, volunteer Working Group (see below) and would be open for forum participant input/review.

Coordination + alignment with regional hubs

• Designate primary coordinator/ convener.

• Clear understanding of resources and opportunities available from different sources. This could include fundraising from the aid community or alignment of existing programs/resources to benefit the Community of Practice.

Membership

• Mapping NCA across the continent and using that to invite members to join the Community of Practice.

• Identification of specific Focal Points and general TOR for Focal Points

• Develop Focal Point database

Working groups

• Organization of working groups with clear lead(s), goals, and proposed activities.

• Annual Forum (target date: early 2021)

• Newsletter (e.g. building on SEEA News)

• A website landing page and a WhatsApp group.

• Making links with private sector and non-governmental groups.

• Using convening power of GDSA and others to have meetings at regional and international events.

Joint communication and advocacy

• Case studies on what NCA has done and achieved in Africa (and template to encourage many to publish case studies on NCA).

• Shared business case for NCA in Africa based in part on case studies

Peer-to-peer exchange, coaching, and mentoring

• At least one south-south exchange or joint training/workshop.

• 1-2 government representatives from a country participating in another country’s national NCA workshops, forums, committee meetings, etc.

Collective learning and co-generation of knowledge

• Building on the WAVES partnership website to create an online African NCA platform to share knowledge materials and tools.

• Kicking-off working groups around different interests (e.g. peer review; development of case studies).

The proposals in Table 3.2 have been framed with the following considerations in mind:

• The Community of Practice can be implemented at relatively low cost if the right coordinating institution is appointed. However, it should not be launched without some resources allocated towards it to – at minimum – fund the cost of a dedicated individual’s time to manage the Community of Practice (whether or not that individual sits within the coordinating/convening institution can be discussed) as well as funding for an annual meeting. Given that these resources are unlikely to be provided by governments initially (though in some cases, governments may be willing and able to co-finance trainings and workshops), agreement is required from external entities including the GDSA Secretariat, World Bank, UNSD, UNEP, UNECA, Natural Capital Coalition and the development assistance community, on how resources can be allocated towards this important endeavor.

• Selecting and nominating high quality country level NCA Focal Points is essential to the success of the NCA Community of Practice. Appropriate discussion and agreement on the precise role for Focal Points and the required skill set of the selected individuals would be required relatively soon.

• It is important that the momentum initiated at the Forum is maintained in the coming 12-18 months. While the substantive work plan may take some time for members of the Community of Practice to confirm, establishing a highly-effective

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network of NCA Focal Points in the short term is needed to stimulate awareness of the NCA Community of Practice and to catalyze the necessary engagement.

Table 3.2: An example NCA Community of Practice timeline.

Year Month Activity / Outcome

2019 December 2019

Agreement in principle to establish NCA Community of Practice by a number of non-government institutions (e.g. the coordinator/convener as well as entities that are interested in providing support for the Community of Practice’s activities in the first year). Selection of the coordinator/convener for the Community of Practice going forward; if agreement cannot be reached on this, an entity can serve as the Acting Convener until agreement is reached in early-mid 2020.

2020 January to June 2020

Strategy developed for the Community of Practice (e.g. roadmap and action plan, building on the content presented here) with inputs from the interim Working Group; Terms of Reference for Focal Points drafted; Mapping landscape for the NCA Community of Practice with invitations sent to countries/entities to join; Development of online platform/page/content for the Community of Practice; Developing concepts for the Working Groups and beginning to scope out activities and opportunities within these groups; Announcement of the NCA Community of Practice to the public, pending funding.

2020 - 2021

July 2020 to July 2021

First year activities (Table 3.1) take place, culminating in the annual meeting of the Community of Practice in July 2021 (or thereabouts). Ensure the meet-ups and side events take place at the various events happening in 2020. Development of a two-year workplan for the next two years of the Community of Practice (July 2021 to July 2023).

Ongoing communication and coordination through Focal Points

2021 - 2023

July 2021 to July 2023

Implementation of the two year workplan for the Community of Practice, including annual meetings.

An Interim Working Group for the establishment of the NCA Community of Practice

There was high enthusiasm from participants to ensure momentum was maintained following the Forum, so as to ensure the establishment of the Community of Practice. As such, and with the encouragement of the World Bank and other organizers, participants self-nominated to join an interim Working Group for the establishment of the NCA Community of Practice (Annex 6). This interim Working Group should be used as a resource, particularly in the first six month start-up phase, to address a number of consultation questions that remain unresolved, including:

• Articulation of the workplan for the Community, including additional details on potential working groups and leads thereof;

• Consideration of different approaches to identifying Focal Points within countries, and Terms of Reference for those Focal Points;

• Advising on the governance structure of the Community, with co-creation of governance terms alongside a number of institutions; and

• Mechanisms for aligning with existing initiatives and communities of practice in Africa and elsewhere.

It is suggested that this Working Group be a volunteer and ad hoc committee open to stakeholders with the strongest interest in seeing the Community launch and thrive.

Commitments made by forum organisers

At the close of the forum, the organisers made a broad commitment to provide technical and

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governance resources towards the operation of the Community of Practice, though it was also noted that additional resource mobilisation may be necessary. For example, the GDSA Secretariat expressed a willingness to host the Community of Practice and also to provide some support towards the convening of an annual meeting. Following the workshop, the forum organisers will seek to align resources to provide for activities over for the first 18 months of the Community of Practice in the first instance. Assistance from other institutions will also be welcomed.

4. CONCLUSIONS AND NEXT STEPS

There is clear evidence that there has been substantial progress towards the development of NCA

in Africa. There is evidence of increasing demand from further countries, for more accounts, and

for using them to achieve sustainable development. There is a strong interest in working

collaboratively to take this area of work forward.

In particular, there was clear and strong support for the development of an Africa Community

of Practice on NCA to drive the process of expanding and accelerating NCA and its use in Africa.

Forum participants were clear in their appreciation of the benefits that a Community of Practice

on NCA would yield, with a return-on-investment higher than the relatively few resources

required to get a Community of Practice started. It was felt that a Community of Practice at the

regional scale could help:

• Increase support for NCA at the national level (by highlighting leaders in the field,

increasing the visibility of NCA champions, improve communication about NCA through

the use of business cases);

• Provide the opportunity to establish a common understanding of NCA implementation

approaches; and

• Provide an opportunity for the engagement and sharing of expertise.

In particular the Community of Practice could directly address barriers to NCA implementation

(Table 2.2) through lessons sharing, south-south exchange, peer review, working groups, and

coordination/alignment at the regional level.

In bringing together relevant expertise and experience from African countries and around the

world, the Africa Forum on Natural Capital Accounting held in Kampala in November 2019

provided a strong platform to further advance NCA in the region. There is important experience

in NCA across Africa on which to build and a clear policy demand for integrated information to

support sustainable development policy and analysis. Establishing a Community of Practice is a

real and practical step towards supporting best practices in NCA, by building capacity and

momentum cross the African continent to mainstream NCA into statistical production and policy

in all African countries.

ANNEX 1: FORUM AGENDA

Facilitators were Steve Bass (IIED), Abisha Mapendembe (UNEP-WCMC) and Peter Katanisa (World Bank

Rwanda).

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ANNEX 2: LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

List of participants – those in italics were not able to participate in the workshop but provided inputs

into the workshop in the form of pre-workshop surveys. In total, participants from

Government

Botswana

• Dimpho Galegane, Water Resources Engineer, Department of Water and Sanitation

• Bathusi Segobai, Economist, Ministry of Finance and Economic Development

Egypt

• Hadeer Mohamed Fathallaha, Director for Trade of Environmental System Department,

Ministry of Environment

Ghana

• Kwame Boakye Fredua, Environmental Economist & Policy Analyst, Environmental Protection

Agency

Kenya

• Christine Mukami Magu, Statistician, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics

• Amanda Louise, Senior Biodiversity Policy Advisor, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics

• Kennedy Olwasi, Assistant Director (Programmes, Projects, & Strategic Initiatives), Ministry of

Environment & Forestry

Lesotho

• Stanley Damane, Director for Environment, Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Culture

Liberia

• Elizabeth Hoggard, Comptroller, Environmental Protection Agency

Madagascar

• Arison Fabien Clair Andriamalala, Monitoring & Assessment, National Commission for Science

and Technology

• Marie Fabienne Randrianarisoa, Responsible for GIS/PADAP, National Commission for Science

and Technology

• Ignela Sahondra Randriantsizafy, Engineer Technical Support Framework, Directorate Generale

for Environment and Forests, Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development

Malawi

• Zacharia Magombo, Principal Scientific Officer, National Herbarium and Botanic Gardens

• Adwell Zembele, Ministry of Finance

Morocco

• Imane Loudiyi, Comptable National, Haut Commisariat au Plan

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Mozambique

• Teresa Magalhaes Pinto, Focal Point, Ministry of Land, Environment, and Rural Development

Namibia

• Olimpio Nhuleipo, Deputy Director, Ministry of Environment and Tourism

Nigeria

• Sonigitu Ekpe, Acting Director (Scientific), Department of Bilateral Economic Cooperation,

Ministry of International Development Cooperation

Rwanda

• Peter Katanisa, National Coordinator, WAVES-Rwanda

Senegal

• Aminata Sall Diop, Division of Evaluation, Division of National Parks, Ministry of Environment

and Sustainable Development

South Africa

• Mandy Driver, Senior Biodiversity Polity Advisor, SANBI

Uganda

• Dr. Tom Okurut, Executive Director, National Environment Management Authority

• Lucy Iyango, Assistant Commissioner Wetlands, Ministry of Water and Environment

• Aliziki Kaudha Lubega, Director for Macroeconomic Statistics, Uganda Bureau of Statistics

• Evelyn Atuhaire, Economist, Ministry of Water and Environment

• Ronald Kaggwa, Manager Production, Trade and Tourism Planning, National Planning Authority

• Sam Mugume, Principal Statistician, Macro Economic Policy Department, Ministry of Finance,

Planning, and Economic Development

• Godwin Kamugisha, Principal Economist, National Environment Management Authority

• Margaret Nakirya, Senior Statistician, Uganda Bureau of Statistics

• Sandra Namukaya, Senior Economist, Ministry of Finance

Zambia

• Richard Lungu, Assistant Director, Ministry of Development Planning

• Abel Siampale, Forestry Department, Ministry of Lands, Natural Resources, and Environment

Non-Government Organisations

African Centre for a Green Economy, South Africa

• Mao Amis, Executive Director

African Development Bank

• Cornelius Nkoanyane Sebutsoe, Senior Capacity Development Officer, African Development

Institute

• Olufunso Somorin, Principal Climate Change & Green Officer, East Africa Regional Office

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• Vanessa Ushie, Manager, Policy Analysis Division, African Natural Resources Centre

Conservation International

• Dr. Rosimeiry Portela, Senior Director

DFID Uganda, Uganda

• Tom Sengalama, Environmental Specialist

Gaborone Declaration for Sustainability in Africa, Botswana

• Ruud Jansen, Executive Secretary

• Disikalala Gaseitsiwe, Deputy Executive Secretary

Green Growth Knowledge Partnership, Switzerland

• John Maughan, Research Programme Manager

International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), United Kingdom

• Steve Bass, Senior Associate

IUCN

• Luther Anukur, Regional Director

• Mersie Ejigu, Africa Region Vice Chair

• Nick Conner, IUCN

• Sophie Kutegeka, Country Director – IUCN Uganda

• Evelyne Busingye, Programme Officer of Water and Biodiversity – IUCN Uganda

Makerere University, Uganda

• Dr. Justine Namaalwa, Head - Department of Environmental Management

• Dr. Patrick Byakagaba, Lecturer

• Dr. John Robert Stephen Tabuti, Professor

• Prof Derek Pomeroy, Department of Environmental Management

National Biodiversity Data Bank, Uganda

• Herbert Tushabe, Manager

Natural Capital Coalition, United Kingdom

• Hannah Brooke, Relationships Director

Natural Eco Capital, Nigeria

• Eugene O. Itua, Dr.

National Remote Sensing Centre, Zambia

• Samuel Maango, Acting Director

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SIDA, Sweden

• Maria van Berlekom, Lead Policy Specialist

United Nations Environment Programme, Kenya

• Monica Lopez Conlon, Programme Management Officer

UNEP-WCMC, United Kingdom

• Steve King, Environmental Economist

• Abisha Mapendembe, Senior Programme Officer

United Nations Statistics Division

• Alessandra Alfieri, Chief

• Marko Javorsek, Statistician

Vital Signs, Kenya

• Everline Ndenga, Programme Manager

World Bank

• Benoit Blarel, Practice Manager

• Raffaello Cervigni, Lead Economist

• Glenn-Marie Lange, Senior Environmental Economist

• Juan-Pablo Castaneda, Senior Environmental Economist

• Stefano Pagiola, Senior Environmental Economist

• Shun Chonabayashi, Environmental Economist

• Iretomiwa Olatunji, Environmental Specialist

• Sonu Jain, Communications Officer

• Michael Vardon, Consultant

• Kim Reuter, Consultant

• Lesya Verheijen, Consultant

WWF, Uganda

• David Duli, Country Director

• Rita Kyategeka Samanya, Communications, Partnerships, and Fundraising Manager

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ANNEX 3: PRE-WORKSHOP QUESTIONNAIRE - COUNTRY SUMMARIES

Botswana

Introduction

The Botswana scoping assessment was completed by staff from Environmental Affairs and

Water Affairs. They considered that, overall, the general state of knowledge about natural

capital in Botswana was good. This was reflected in a sound understanding of the contribution

of minerals to economic activity, water accounts, and preliminary energy accounts.

Implementing natural capital accounts

Botswana have implemented a number of natural capital accounts – energy, forest/timber,

minerals, and water. In developing their accounts they have found some of the international

guidelines and materials useful including the SEEA Central Framework and the SEEA Water.

Institutional arrangements for NCA are well established through the WAVES project with

overarching coordination by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (Figure 4).

Steering committees and a working group have been set up to help develop accounts, with

water accounts having been institutionalised. Unfortunately, energy and mineral accounts have

not been updated since the partnership with WAVES ended, due to lack of resources and

technical capacity constraints. Botswana is currently working on a project with the GDSA and CI,

alongside NASA, to map ecosystems. In addition, JICA has assisted with a forest inventory and

will do a pilot study on the valuation of forest resources. Finally, there is a valuation study

ongoing for dryland ecosystems as part of a GEF-6 project.

There are a wide range of data available and a number of institutional mechanisms in place to

support access to data, data sharing and data quality.

Use of NCA

To date a number of areas have been informed by NCA results, including the National

Development Plan, the draft National Framework for Sustainable Development, land use

planning, the National Water Master Plan, and the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action

Plan (NBSAP). In addition, the results of WAVES were presented to the Parliamentary Committee

on Agriculture and Environment and national reports to the CBD include information on natural

capital. Notably, the water accounts have been institutionalised and have been used to inform

the following: raw water abstraction strategy project, catchment management committees, the

National Water Master Plan Review, the monitoring of SDGs (e.g. SDG 6), and establishment of

better linkages between key stakeholders.

Unfortunately at this stage there are no clear champions or promoters of NCA within the

Botswana government but the GDSA initiative may provide an opening for engagement with

relevant people.

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Figure 1: Institutional arrangements for natural capital accounting in Botswana.

Barriers

Botswana sees the greatest barriers to NCA implementation as being lack of inter-institutional

coordination, lack of technical expertise, financial resources availability, and disarticulation

between statistics registries and NCA as the key barriers to implementation.

Egypt

Introduction

The scoping assessment for Egypt was completed by staff from the Ministry of Environment,

with reference to publicly available documents published by the Ministry of Finance and the

Central Auditing Organisation. They considered that, overall, the general state of knowledge

about natural capital in Egypt was moderate. Limited other information was provided on the

state of natural capital knowledge in the country, though a report on the cost of environmental

degradation published by the World Bank was referenced.


Limited information was provided on how Egypt is implementing NCA, though it was noted that

steering committees and working groups (as institutional arrangements for NCA), would be

work well in the Egyptian context. Egypt is working with the World Bank WAVES programme

and found that assistance useful. It was noted that the Central Agency for Public Mobilization

and Statistics as well as the Central Auditing Organization acted as a clearinghouse for data and

for sharing information between governments and agencies.

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Use of NCA

To date no key national documents have been informed by NCA results, as NCA is in early stages

in the country.

There are regular reporting requirements including a national state of the environment report

and international reporting (e.g., to the three Rio Conventions (UNFCCC, UNCCD, CBD)) which

may be an opportunity for future NCA data.


Egypt sees the greatest barriers to NCA implementation as being lack of data and lack of financial

resources. They are less concerned about establishing institutional arrangements and finding

suitable demand for NCA from government. To date however, they have limited experience in

NCA and have no specific lessons to convey.

Ghana

Introduction

The scoping assessment for Ghana was completed by staff from the Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA). They considered that, overall, the general state of knowledge about natural

capital in Ghana was moderate. There was a reasonable understanding of their natural

resources including minerals and land although work to determine the economic value of these

resources has not yet been completed. The information gaps concern the disaggregation of data

(e.g. many data are available in aggregated format at the national level but not at the sub-

national level). The threats to Ghana’s natural capital are well recognised and include water

pollution, deforestation, illegal mining activities, land degradation, and climate change.


Ghana have compiled energy and minerals accounts26 but would like to implement many more

NCA including accounts for biodiversity, carbon, ecosystems, emissions, waste, and water. In

considering the development of this broad range of accounts, they have used (and found useful)

the SEEA Central Framework, SEEA Water, SEEA Energy, and the draft SEEA Implementation

Guide.

Establishing institutional arrangements for NCA is an ongoing process with working groups and

overarching senior level management in place. It is the legal mandate of the Ghana Statistical

Service to produce accounts, and there is strong institutional collaboration with the

environment-related institutions such as the Environmental Protection Agency in this regard.

There are a number of institutions mandated to produce NCA, principally the Ghana Statistical

Service, the EPA, MESTI and the Ministry of Finance, in coordination with relevant sector

institutions.

Current work to build NCA has been facilitated through assistance from the World Bank,

Conservation International, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), as 26 Available online: http://www.epa.gov.gh/epa/publications/natural-capital-accounting

22 January 2020 | of 57

well as through the Gaborone Declaration for Sustainability in Africa (GDSA). Breaks in the

production of natural capital accounts have been due to technical capacity challenges, financial

resource constraints, and low or no demand for accounts.

Use of NCA

To date no key national documents have been informed by NCA results but the scoping

assessment indicated the potential to use NCA to inform the National Development Plan,

National Strategies in specific themes (e.g., sustainable development, climate change, water)

and in National Biodiversity Strategic Action Plan (NBSAP). A few references to natural capital

have been made in national budget statements and the legislature are occasionally briefed on

the need to incorporate natural capital in decision-making.

Success stories related to the management of natural capital include:

1. Environmental and natural capital issues are being mainstreamed in development plans

at the local government level;

2. Pilot asset accounts for minerals contributed to reforms within the mining sector (i.e.

licensing and formalization of small-scale mining activities, etc.); and

3. Production of energy accounts contribute to the monitoring of sustainable

development indicator 7.2.1, and 7.3.1, among others.

There are regular reporting requirements including a national state of the environment report

and international reporting (e.g., to the three Rio Conventions (UNFCCC, UNCCD, CBD)) which

may be an opportunity for future NCA data.

There are currently a scarcity of champions for NCA but many opportunities to expand upon

this in the future.


Ghana sees the greatest barriers to NCA implementation as being financial resource availability

and lack of lack of technical expertise. They are less concerned about establishing institutional

arrangements and finding suitable demand for NCA from government.

Three important lessons learned in regards to the implementation of NCA include the need for:

1) strong institutional coordination and collaboration; 2) continuous advocacy and awareness

raising among data users and producers; and 3) for the establishment of a strong link between

the production of NCA information to decision-making/policy. It was also noted that

organizations like GDSA need to be consistent in follow-up to progress being made by member

countries, particularly at the Ministerial level using forums like the African Ministerial

Conference on the Environment (AMCEN).

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Kenya

Introduction

The Kenya scoping assessment was completed by staff from the National Treasury, Ministry of

Environment & Forestry, and the Kenya Wildlife Society. They considered that, overall, the

general state of knowledge about natural capital in Kenya was moderate. This view reflected

that they had a reasonable understanding of the physical state of certain environmental assets

as well as some understanding of some monetary and non-monetary values.

Gaps in data include a lack of coherence in information between data sources partially due to

the existence of silos. In addition, valuation exercises often lack monetary values and there is a

lack of consistency across different valuation exercises.


Kenya have implemented a number of natural capital accounts – for energy, forest/timber (with

support from UNEP-FAO), minerals, among others. This work has been developed using the

System of National Accounts, SEEA Central Framework, draft SEEA Implementation Guide, SEEA

Experimental Ecosystem Accounts, SEEA Applications and Extensions, and Designing Pilots for

Ecosystem Accounting documentation.

Institutional arrangements for NCA include a steering committee, working groups, and oversight

by senior government officials. The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics coordinates NCA with a

pool of experts in support, though the Ministry of Environment holds the obligation to report

on international and regional conventions related to the environment. The latter include

institutions such as technical working groups and subject matter work groups. National

Environment Coordination Authority provides information through the State of Environment

reports and the Environmental Performance Index. Support for the NCA work has been received

from World Bank, Conservation International, TEEB, DANIDA, FAO, and UNEP, as well as the

GDSA.

Use of NCA

To date, work on NCA in Kenya has informed some environmental policies and plans, sectoral

policies, and the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP). Looking forward, Kenya

has developed a Natural Resources Benefits Sharing Bill (2018), which is awaiting enactment.

The bill seeks to guide sharing of revenue from natural resources at national and sub national

levels (County) and prescribes institutional arrangement for doing so; this may well link to

natural capital accounting data or indicators.


Kenya sees the greatest barriers to NCA implementation as being the lack of financial resources

and lack of data. They are less concerned with issues such as an absence of demand for NCA

and the connection between statistical offices and NCA work.

Their experience in NCA has highlighted the importance of: re-configuring data indicators and

sharing with partners for ease of data collection and integration; need for capacity building

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among data providers; and developing a framework for natural capital accounting to avoid silo

mentality and improve coordination.

Lesotho

Introduction

The scoping assessment for Lesotho was completed by staff from the Department of

Environment. They considered that, overall, the general state of knowledge about natural

capital in Lesotho was very poor. The types of information available to the national government

included on land (soil type, farming practices, land cover), water quality, biodiversity, ecosystem

extent, and information on forests and protected areas.


Lesotho has not compiled natural capital accounts, but expressed interest in agriculture,

biodiversity, carbon, and ecosystem accounting. Though there has been no NCA

implementation yet, the Bureau of Statistics (Environment Division and National Accounts

Division) as well as the Department of Environment have begun initiating the process. In

addition, delegations from the country participated in some training on the SEEA EEA in October

2019, following an online training. Relevant to the implementation of NCA, Lesotho is a member

of the GDSA.

Use of NCA

To date no key national documents have been informed by NCA results, as NCA development is

just starting. There are regular reporting requirements including a national state of the

environment report and international reporting (e.g., to the three Rio Conventions (UNFCCC,

UNCCD, CBD)) which may be an opportunity for future NCA data.

Champions for NCA include the Bureau of Statistics and the Department of Environment, which

have initiated the process of NCA.


Lesotho sees the greatest barriers to NCA implementation as being the lack of technical

expertise and the need to establish institutional arrangements (e.g. inter-institutional

coordination). Lessons learned to date include the importance of establishing a coordination

mechanism across government, engaging decision-makers at different levels, and the provision

of adequate resources to ensure success.

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Liberia

Introduction

The scoping assessment for Liberia was completed by staff from the Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA), United Methodist University (Liberia), and Conservation International Liberia.

They considered that, overall, the general state of knowledge about natural capital in Liberia

was very poor.


Liberia has not developed any NCA, but expressed interest in biodiversity, ecosystem,

forest/timber, and land accounts. Limited information was provided on how Liberia is

implementing NCA, though it was noted that steering committees, working groups, and

oversight by senior government officials (as institutional arrangements for NCA), would be work

well in the Liberian context. Liberia is working with the Conservation International on NCA and

found that assistance useful.

Use of NCA


in the country. It was noted that there would opportunities for NCA to inform NCDs/Low Carbon

Economy Plans, environmental policies and plans, sectoral policies, and poverty reduction and

economic growth policies.

There are regular reporting requirements including international reporting (e.g., to the three

Rio Conventions (UNFCCC, UNCCD, CBD)) which may be an opportunity for future NCA data.


Liberia did not provide information on the hurdles faced in implementing NCA. In addition, they

had no specific lessons to convey.

Madagascar

Introduction

The Malagasy scoping assessment was completed by staff from the Ministry of Environment

and Sustainable Development. They considered that, overall, the general state of knowledge

about natural capital in Madagascar was poor. The major threats to natural capital are

recognised as illegal exploitation of resources, poor governance, poverty, and bush and forest

fires. They see gaps in data arising as a result of a lack of clear mechanisms to coordinate the

production and use of data on natural capital.


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Madagascar has developed a number of natural capital accounts including carbon (for the island

of Nosy Be), ecosystem accounts (for the island of Nosy Be), forest/timber accounts27, and

preliminary work on freshwater, minerals28, and macroeconomic indicators29. They would like

to extend this program to develop a comprehensive set of natural capital accounts including

agriculture, biodiversity, carbon (for the whole country), ecosystems (for the whole country),

emissions, energy, fisheries, land, soil, waste, and water. These SEEA documentation and the

Ecosystem Natural Capital Accounts Quick Start Package were used in the development of

accounts.

Institutional arrangements for NCA are not well established, and not all processes established

during the WAVES programme have lasted beyond the end of the WAVES programme. Steering

committees and working groups have been used in the past.

In recent years, the roles of the World Bank, through the WAVES partnership, the Indian Ocean

Commission, and Conservation International have been important in taking forward

implementation. In the past, production of the accounts had been stalled at various times due

a lack of funding.

A range of data is available in Madagascar. However, data sharing and coordination is limited

with each institution collecting and managing their own data to report on and analyse their

direct activities.

Use of NCA

To date, NCA information has not informed national development plans or policies. In the

future, it is hoped that other national strategies can be informed by NCA including sustainable

development plans, low carbon economy plans, land use planning, water management plans,

environmental policies and plans, industry development plans, sectoral policies, and poverty

reduction and economic growth plans.

There are regular reporting requirements including international reporting (e.g., to the three

Rio Conventions (UNFCCC, UNCCD, CBD)) which may be an opportunity for future NCA data.


Based on Madagascar’s experience in developing accounts, the top two barriers for the

development of accounts include financial resources availability and the need to develop

linkages between statistics agencies and those working on natural capital accounting. They

noted, however, that awareness of NCA among decision-makers remains high and hence NCA

is taken into account in regards to decisions and policies.

27 Available online: https://www.wavespartnership.org/sites/waves/files/kc/A4-snaphot-bois-02p-FINALE.pdf 28 Available online: https://www.wavespartnership.org/sites/waves/files/kc/A4-snapshot-mines%2002p-FINALE.pdf 29 Available online: https://www.wavespartnership.org/sites/waves/files/kc/A4-Indicateurs%20macro%2020p-FINALE.pdf

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Malawi

Introduction

The Malawi scoping assessment was completed by staff from the Ministry of Finance, Economic

Planning and Development as well as from the National Herbarium and Botanic Gardens of

Malawi. They considered that, overall, the general state of knowledge about natural capital in

Malawi was very poor. In Malawi, it is common knowledge that the country’s natural resources

have been heavily degraded but there are a lack of detailed assessments on the topic.


Malawi has not yet developed NCA, but there is interest in developing agriculture, biodiversity,

carbon, ecosystems, emissions, energy, fisheries, forests/timbers, freshwater, land, minerals,

soil, waste, and water.

Institutional arrangements for NCA are not established, but it was noted that a first step would

be the development of a working group as the country already has Sector Working Groups which

are used as forums for negotiations among different stakeholders.

Use of NCA

Given there are no NCA results for Malawi at this stage, there have been no instances of using

NCA. There would be opportunities, however, for NCA to inform a number of national strategies

and reports (such as the state of environment report) as well as international reporting (e.g., to

the three Rio Conventions (UNFCCC, UNCCD, CBD)) which may be an opportunity for future NCA

data.


Barriers to success in implementation of NCA include lack of statistics and data. To date they

have limited experience in NCA and have no specific lessons to convey.

Morocco

Introduction

The Moroccan scoping assessment was completed by staff from the Haut Commissariat au Plan.

They considered that, overall, the general state of knowledge about natural capital in Morocco

was poor.


Morocco has developed forest/timber and water accounts, and would like to further expand

their NCA efforts to include land and waste accounts. The natural capital accounts were

developed using the System of National Accounts, SEEA Central Framework, and SEEA Water,

which were also considered very useful in this effort.

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Institutional arrangements for NCA are being established and include a team working on

national accounting, the UNECA, the High Commission for Water and Forests. A working group

has been established and, in the future, a steering committee and oversight by senior

government officials could be effective in supporting implementation. In the past, there have

been breaks in NCA due to lack of funding and lack of data. They have also received support

from the FAO.

Use of NCA

To date, NCA information has not been used to inform national development policies and plans.

There would be opportunities, however, for NCA to inform a number of national strategies and

reports (such as the state of environment report) as well as international reporting (e.g., for the

SDGs) which may be an opportunity for future NCA data.


Morocco has identified three main barriers to success in implementation of NCA, namely: lack

of inter-institutional coordination, financial resources availability, and disarticulation between

statistical registries and NCA. In addition, they had no specific lessons to convey.

Mozambique

Introduction

The Mozambican scoping assessment was completed by staff from a number of agencies

including the Ministry of Land, Environment, and Rural Development. They considered that,

overall, the general state of knowledge about natural capital in Mozambique was very poor.

Nevertheless, it is recognised that natural capital is important for social, economic, and cultural

development, even if official statistics and information are few.


Aside from some small scale efforts in specific sectors, Mozambique has not compiled any NCA

at present but they would like to implement a comprehensive NCA program. The discussion

here on implementation is therefore prospective. Mozambique sees benefit in establishing

appropriate institutional arrangements (e.g., steering committees and working groups)

involving staff from different sectors and agencies. The agency responsible for developing NCA,

will be the Institute of Statistics and the Ministry of Land, Environment, and Rural Development.

The primary reason for a delay in producing NCA is a lack of knowledge and financial resources.

They note the importance of assistance from international agencies, including work being

supported by the African Development Bank and WWF. Mozambique is a member country of

the GDSA.

Use of NCA

Given there are no NCA results for Mozambique at this stage, there have been no instances of

using NCA. However, it is anticipated that NCA results can be applied in many contexts including

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for national (including the state of environment report) and international reporting. Champions

for NCA include the Ministry of Land, Environment, and Rural Development (who have created

an inter-ministerial natural capital and green economy group) as part of implementing the

Action Plan for Green Economy and the Gaborone Declaration for Sustainability in Africa (GDSA).


Mozambique sees the greatest barriers to NCA implementation as being the lack of statistics

and data, inter-institutional coordination, lack of technical expertise, and financial resources

availability.

Even though Mozambique have not implemented any accounts, they have already identified

some important lessons, namely that inter-institution coordination and articulation

mechanisms can be improved, that decision-makers should be sensitised to natural capital

accounting, and that capacity building and training is important.

Namibia

Introduction

The Namibian scoping assessment was completed by staff from the Namibia Statistics Agency,

National Planning Commission, Ministry of Agriculture, Water, and Forestry, the Ministry of

Fishery and Marine Resources, Ministry of Mines and Energy, and Ministry of Environment and

Tourism. They considered that, overall, the general state of knowledge about natural capital in

Namibia was moderate. While there was considered to be information available on mineral

extraction, forest, water, and wildlife, there was concern that some natural capital stock data

are not updated on an annual basis. The threats to natural capital were identified as

overexploitation, climate change, clearing of land, overgrazing, poaching, and illegal fishing.


At various points in time, Namibia have compiled various NCA including accounts for energy,

fisheries, forest/timber, freshwater, minerals, water, and wildlife accounts. In addition to this

broad list of accounts, Namibia have a desire to develop accounts for biodiversity, carbon,

ecosystems, emissions, land, soil, and waste. A range of SEEA documents have been used in in

the development of NCA and were found to be useful, though it was noted that online training

and course materials (with examples of each account) would be useful in the future.

Institutional arrangements for NCA are quite well established, involving all sectors of the

economy, the Namibia Statistics Agency Board, economic ministries, industry associations and

data producers and users. Memorandums of Understanding have been developed with all

stakeholders. Historically, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism was coordinating NCA work

within the government after which point a Technical Working Group on Natural Resources

Accounting was established to compile pilot NRA Accounts for Namibia. Following this, accounts

were decentralized to relevant ministries.

Breaks in account development have taken place due to: lack of technical skills for NCA

compilation in the relevant institutions; insufficient budget for outsourcing of work on NCA; NCA

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not priority or lack of interest or understanding of the importance of NCA on part of top

management in relevant line Ministries; no use of local academic institutions; and that NCA was

not made part of annual work plans in relevant line ministries.

In developing accounts, Namibia has received training on SEEA and Ecosystem Accounting from

UN Statistics Agency and GIZ. Namibia is also a member country of the GDSA.

Use of NCA

To date no direct use has been made of NCA data in the policy space. A number of plans and

strategies can be identified however that could use NCA information. These include the State of

the Environment reporting as well as the parliamentary committee on natural resources, the

Sustainable Development Advisory Council, and the Cabinet Committee on Economics. In terms

of international reporting, Namibia completes the various required transmissions (UNFCCC, CBD

– NBSAPs, SDGs) however each report is coordinated through separate processes.

A general challenge for gaining momentum for NCA use in government is a need to raise

awareness and cultivate interest at top management levels within ministries.

There have been a number of successful cases of improved management of natural capital in

Namibia including expanding the network of protected areas, including Marine Protected Areas

(alongside a Marine Spatial Plan). Namibia has also implemented a successful Community Based

Natural Resource Management Programme and compiled the Inventory of Ecosystem Services.


Namibia sees the greatest barriers to NCA implementation as lack of technical expertise,

absence of demand for NCA, financial resources availability, and a limited national budget for

NCA.

Their experience in NCA has highlighted the following lessons learned, noting that it is important

to have: 1) high awareness of NCA at the highest level of Government; 2) champions of NCA at

top management of relevant line ministries; and 3) high level of technical skills, sufficient staff,

budget, and good coordination among relevant institutions.

Nigeria

Introduction

The Nigerian scoping assessment was completed by staff from the Federal Ministry of

Environment, National Bureau of Statistics, University of Calabar, River State University, and the

Ministry of International Development Cooperation. They considered that, overall, the general

state of knowledge about natural capital in Nigeria was poor. There was considered to be no

data available on the threats to natural capital in the country and that there were gaps in natural

capital information.


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Limited information was provided on how Nigeria is implementing NCA, though it was noted

that steering committees, working groups, and oversight by senior government officials (as

institutional arrangements for NCA), would be work well in the Nigerian context. It was

mentioned that there is little spatial and geographic data, that the National Bureau of Statistics

requires more institutional/human capacity building, and that there is no framework or

legislation around natural capital data collection.

Use of NCA


in the country. There are reporting requirements including national and international reporting

(e.g., to the three Rio Conventions (UNFCCC, UNCCD, CBD)) which may be an opportunity in the

future.


Nigeria sees the greatest barriers to NCA implementation as being lack of data and lack of inter-

institutional coordination. They are less concerned about disarticulation between statistical

agencies and NCA, and finding suitable demand for NCA from government. To date however,

they have limited experience in NCA and have no specific lessons to convey.

Senegal

Introduction

The Senegal scoping assessment was completed by staff from National Statistics and

Demography Agency. They considered that, overall, the general state of knowledge about

natural capital in Senegal was moderate. While there was considered to be information available

on mining, fishing, forestry, and the environment, the information is not exhaustive and there

is no structured data collection on natural capital in the country. Note, though, that knowledge

of the country’s natural capital has increased since the discovery of oil and natural gas in 2014.

The main threats to natural capital include overexploitation, loss of biodiversity, and loss of land.


In 2010, Senegal undertook a Forest Ecosystem Services Improvement and Development

Project, which was looking at ensuring better knowledge around forest ecosystem services and

to integrate that information into tax policy. Regarding natural capital accounts, Senegal has

completed agriculture and fisheries accounts, and an Energy Balance EIS has been developed.

Accounts for forest/timber, land, soil, and water are being developed. These accounts have

been developed using the SEEA Central Framework as well as the Technical Recommendations

for the EEA.

Institutional arrangements for NCA are established, following the revision of statistical law in

2012 under the National Agency for Statistics and Demography (ANSD), whereby satellite

accounts are developed following an MOU between the ANSD and line ministries developing

the accounts. Senegal has a technical committee that meets regularly to set guidelines for

statistics collection. It was noted that an information system to bring together natural capital

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data would be useful and that breaks in accounts production has been due to lack of financial

resources. Senegal has received technical and financial assistance from UNEP, UNDP, UNDO,

UNESCO, and the World Bank.

Use of NCA

To date no direct use has been made of NCA data in the policy space, though natural capital

information more broadly is often used in government decision-making. A number of plans and

strategies can be identified however that could use NCA information, including a range of

national development plans and policies (such as the state of environment report, the mining

code, the water code, and other such codes that regulate the fair and equitable use of natural

resources). Other opportunities include regular reporting to international commitments such

as the UNFCCC, CBD, UNCCD, and the SDGs.

It was noted that information from the treasury – including a sector’s contribution to GDP and

the sector’s reliance on natural capital – is made available to decision-makers. Champions for

natural capital accounting do also include the private sector, particularly those in the mining

sector.

Senegal has made great efforts in investing in coastal protection, combating coastal erosion,

establishing protected areas for the conservation of marine, and coastal and terrestrial

biodiversity. In addition, carbon projects are being developed in the country and many studies

are being done in the field of carbon sequestration.


Senegal sees the greatest barriers to NCA implementation as being financial resources

availability and the lack of data. They are less concerned about inter-institutional coordination

and disarticulation between statistical registries and NCA. Lessons learned, that have helped

them in their NCA implementation, include making sure enough data are available across

different sectors, setting up systems where MOUs can be signed between the national statistics

agency and line ministries, and sharing experiences with other countries that have also

implemented NCA.

South Africa

Introduction

The South African scoping assessment was completed by staff from the South African National

Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and Statistics South Africa (StatsSA). They considered that, overall,

the general state of knowledge about natural capital in South Africa was good. This was reflected

in a sound understanding of ecosystems and species condition in South Africa and also a

reasonable understanding of some components of natural resources such as mineral and energy

resources. However, it was felt that there was still a lack of time series data, and that some

information on natural capital stocks were still missing. Finally, it was noted that information

was not always well consolidated or easily available in a format for decision makers and the

general public.

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The biggest pressure on ecosystems and species was described as the loss and degradation of

natural habitat (e.g. through conversion of natural areas to cultivation, urban settlement and

mining). In addition to habitat loss and degradation, freshwater ecosystems (such as rivers and

wetlands) are threatened by over-abstraction of water, and marine ecosystems are threatened

by harvesting pressure. Some species are threatened by over-harvesting or illegal poaching (e.g.

some medicinal plants, abalone and rhino). Invasion by alien species and climate change are

additional threats.


South Africa have implemented a number of natural capital accounts – including for some

ecosystem types, emissions30, energy, minerals, fisheries, rivers, water and land31 (for one

province), minerals, and water.32 They would like to extend this program to develop accounts

for agriculture, biodiversity (though they are in the process of developing species accounts for

rhino and cycads; reports will be available in 2020), carbon, ecosystem accounts, emissions, and

land (national land accounts are being developed). The accounts have been developed using a

range of guidance materials on the SEEA, which have been considered useful. In addition, the

software package EnSym is being used in developing the land and ecosystem asset accounts

under the NCA&VES project. EnSym automates the production of the accounts, saving

enormous amounts of time and effort. The software is free but currently does not have a formal

user manual or other supporting materials; an EnSym handbook or manual would be useful to

have in the future.

Institutional arrangements for NCA are well established. StatsSA has an environmental-

economic accounting unit that leads the compilation of mineral, energy and fisheries accounts

in partnership with other relevant agencies. Water accounts were re-initiated with funding from

the Water Research Commission (a public agency). Breaks in the production of mineral,

fisheries, energy, and water accounts were due to capacity constraints within Stats SA.

Stats SA and SANBI are working in partnership on producing ecosystem accounts. The NCA&VES

Project, which began in 2018 and will be completed in early 2020, is led by the UNSD and

UN Environment, with funding from the European Union. Stats SA and SANBI are leading the

project nationally, working closely with a range of national and sub-national stakeholders, to

further develop ecosystem accounts for South Africa.

Generally, the implementation of accounts has been driven from within the country. In the past

few years, South Africa was one of seven pilot countries that participated in the global project

Advancing Natural Capital Accounting (ANCA) (also referred to as Advancing SEEA Experimental

Ecosystem Accounting) (mid-2014 – May 2015). The project was led by the UN Statistics Division

(UNSD) in partnership with UNEP and the CBD Secretariat, with funding from the Government

of Norway. Being part of this project provided a large boost to South Africa’s ecosystem

accounting efforts, in terms of funding, advice and links with other countries.

South Africa is now one of five pilot countries in the NCA&VES project, which will until June

2020. The project is funded by the European Union and led globally by UNSD and UN

30 More information available online: www.environment.gov.za/sites/default/files/docs/greenhousegas_invetorysouthafrica.pdf 31 More information available online: http://biodiversityadvisor.sanbi.org/planning-and-assessment/experimental-ecosystem-accounting/ 32 Information on various accounts available online: www.statssa.gov.za

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Environment. The funding received through this project, as well as additional technical support

through the UN agencies, has been essential for building on the work of the ANCA project to

take forward ecosystem accounting in South Africa. Accounts to be produced as part of

NCA&VES include national land accounts, national accounts for terrestrial ecosystem assets, and

accounts for protected areas and metropolitan areas. Accounts for ecosystem services will be

piloted for the province of KwaZulu-Natal.

Many national department and agencies are involved in gathering and managing natural capital

related data. Provincial environmental affairs and conservation authorities are also important

sources. The Spatial Data Infrastructure Act (2003) and the Promotion of Access to Information

Act (2000) provide good encouragement and support for data coordination and sharing with all

information available on agency based websites.

Use of NCA

A number of sectoral policies have been informed by NCA, including the National Water

Resources Strategy and the National Water & Sanitation Master Plan. In the future, there are a

number of policies and plans that NCA information could inform including the National

Development Plan 2030, the National Strategy for Sustainable Development, the Biodiversity

Economy Development Strategy, the National Water Resources Strategy, the National Protected

Area Expansion Strategy and NBSAPs. There is also thought that NCA data could support the

development of national indicators for South Africa for inclusion in the annual report published

by the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation.

Champions for natural capital accounting currently include Stats SA, SANBI, Department of

Environment, Forestry & Fisheries, and Department of Water & Sanitation, but with a growing

number in other departments and organizations.

Linked to the NCA&VES project, South Africa held the first National NCA Forum on 10-11 July

2019, with more than a hundred participants from government, NGOs and private sector. This

has helped to mobilize interest and support for NCA, and there is a growing NCA community of

practice in South Africa. South Africa also held a National NCA Training Workshop in May 2019,

with around 30 participants, mainly from government. The workshop provided hands-on

training in producing ecosystem accounts with “live” South African data, and has helped to build

momentum and broaden the skills base for NCA.

There a number of instances of successful management of natural capital in South Africa. The

Department of Environmental Affairs runs a series of Environmental Programs focused on the

management of natural resources, such as Working for Water (which clears invasive alien plants

that compromise water supply) and Working for Wetlands (which restores wetlands) – these

programs create jobs and alleviate poverty as well as providing natural capital benefits.

The concept of ecological infrastructure has proved useful in South Africa and is showing

significant uptake in policy. A Framework for Investing in Ecological Infrastructure has been

developed.

South Africa has been faced with severe droughts in the last several years, with major impacts

on water supply to cities. This has prompted a focus on Strategic Water Source Areas (SWSAs)

– the 10% of South Africa’s land area that delivers 50% of South Africa’s water, supporting half

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the population and two thirds of the economy. SWSAs are increasingly recognized as vital

ecological infrastructure that supports and enhances built infrastructure such as dams. Efforts

are underway to ensure appropriate land use in SWSAs and to secure their ecological

functioning.

Significant progress is being made in the expansion of the protected area network, including

through Biodiversity Stewardship Programmes, in which landowners enter into contracts with

conservation authorities. The landowners retain ownership of the land and responsibility for its

management in terms of an agreed management plan which is audited annually. These contract

protected areas are much more cost effective for the state than state-owned protected areas,

as shown in the Business Case for Biodiversity Stewardship based on detailed analysis of actual

protected area establishment and management costs to date. The National Protected Area

Expansion Strategy sets detailed ecosystem-specific targets for protected area expansion,

focusing on under-protected ecosystem types.


South Africa sees the greatest barriers to NCA implementation as being the lack of financial

resources and lack of technical expertise. They are less concerned with issues around inter-

agency coordination and disarticulation between statistics registries and NCA.

Their experience in NCA resulted in the following lessons learned:

1. Initial accounts are likely to be supply-driven rather than based on demand from

policymakers or decision-makers. The usefulness of natural capital accounts has to

be demonstrated before demand for the accounts can be expected.

2. The existence of an organization that has the ability to convene various partners to

collaborate to produce natural capital accounts, is extremely useful. For ecosystem

accounts in South Africa, Statistics South Africa and SANBI have been able to play

this role.

3. Ecosystem accounts in physical terms are powerful in their own right, not just as a

precursor to monetary accounts. Many stakeholders are reassured to hear that NCA

is primarily about systematic measurement of ecosystems and their contributions,

and that this measurement needed be in monetary terms.

4. Ecologists should play a central role in the development of ecosystem accounts.

Meaningful ecosystem accounts require a strong ecological perspective, not simply

a resource economics perspective (which may be sufficient for other environmental

accounts).

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Uganda

Introduction

The Ugandan scoping assessment was completed by staff from the Ministry of Water and

Environment as well as from the World Bank. They considered that, overall, the general state of

knowledge about natural capital in Uganda was moderate. Information is available on forestry,

wetlands, agriculture, and on national parks, but there remain gaps in valuation of natural

capital as well as in the regularity of data collection. Threats to natural capital include

unsustainable exploitation of natural capital, degradation of resources, unplanned settlement

and rapid urbanisation, and high population growth rate.


Uganda has developed NCA for biodiversity, land, fisheries, forests, wetlands, and water. In

addition, there is interest to expand their NCA programme to include agriculture, carbon,

ecosystems, emissions, energy, minerals, soil, and waste. Accounts have been developed with

the use of various SEEA-related documents, though it was noted that it would also be useful to

see example accounts from other countries in Africa as well.

Institutional arrangements are in place for NCA and are overseen by a national steering

committee, with the compilation and integration of accounts done by the Uganda Bureau of

Statistics. Technical review is provided by the technical working group (which comprises of data

users and line ministries, as well as the private sector and civil society organisations). Finally,

sector committees are the starting point for accounting development, and these function as a

subset of the technical working group.

Breaks in accounting production have been due to lack of data, financial resource constraints,

and inadequate technical capacity. Uganda has received assistance from international

institutions including the World Bank and UNEP-WCMC.

Use of NCA

To date no direct use has been made of NCA data in the policy space, though natural capital

information more broadly is often used in government decision-making. A number of plans and

strategies can be identified however that could use NCA information, including a range of

national development plans and policies, such as the state of the environment report. Other

opportunities include regular reporting to international commitments such as the UNFCCC,

CBD, UNCCD, and the SDGs.

Champions for NCA include Permanent Secretaries within the Ministry of Finance, Planning and

Economic Development as well as the Ministry of Water and Environment, as well as officials

from the Department of Macroeconomic Policy in the Ministry of Finance and the Forest and

Wetlands Departments in the Ministry of Water and Environment.


Uganda sees the greatest barriers to NCA implementation as being the lack of statistics and data

and financial resource availability. They are less concerned with issues such as the disarticulation

between statistical registries and NCA and the potential absence of demand for NCA.

22 January 2020 | of 57

A few key important lessons learned have been identified as follows:

1. Importance of having a structure that connects/ links data generators, users, decision

makers within institutions;

2. Identification of policy entry points to ensure there is sustainable demand and

importance of the accounts to the country;

3. The importance of identifying champions of natural capital accounting in the country;

4. Building a community of practice and a critical mass of experts in country to facilitate

the development of the accounts; and

5. Importance of having a sustainability plan that articulates the resources (financial,

technical) set aside for future accounts development.

Zambia

Introduction

The Zambian scoping assessment was completed by staff from the Ministry of National

Development Planning, Zambia Statistical Agency (CSO), Ministry of Water Development,

Sanitation, and Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, and the

National Remote Sensing Center. They considered that, overall, the general state of knowledge

about natural capital in Zambia was moderate. There is a growing recognition of the value of

natural resources and their contribution to livelihoods, and major threats to natural capital

include deforestation, low value chain development in non-timber forest products, water

bodies’ management, and poor land use management.


Zambia is in the process of developing forest/timber, land, and water accounts and would also

like to develop energy, minerals, and tourism accounts in the future. They are using the SEEA

Central Framework and SEEA Water, which they find useful in this regard.

Currently, the compilation of NCA is still in an early stage and is produced by a consortium of

individuals from different ministries and government institutions including personnel from the

Zambia Statistical Agency (ZAMSTATS). The consortium is led by the Ministry of National

Development Planning with support from the World Bank. In the past, there has been a break

in the production of land accounts and also in modelling efforts due to issues around

stakeholder coordination, lack of data, lack of technical expertise, and lack of ‘buy in’ at senior

leadership levels. In the future, ZAMSTATS will take the lead in the compilation of accounts

through its national accounts branch.

Use of NCA

Given that NCA is just beginning development in Zambia, there have few instances of the use of

NCA in informing policies (though it has informed sectoral policies as well as poverty reduction

and economic growth plans). However, it is anticipated that NCA results can be applied in many

contexts including both national and international plans and reporting.

22 January 2020 | of 57

Parliamentarians were briefed on the development of the Water Accounts and their

submissions were factored in in the second iteration of the Accounts. Once the reports for

Water and Forest Accounts are launched for the country, these reports will be distributed to

Parliament and its various subcommittees on Economic Development and Environment.


Zambia sees the greatest barriers to NCA implementation as being the lack of statistics and data

and lack of technical expertise. They are less concerned with issues such as the disarticulation

between statistical registries and NCA, and the potential absence of demand for NCA.

Zambia have already identified some important lessons, namely: 1) the need for awareness

among decision makers of the use of NCA and policy uses; 2) the need to link NCA to the SDGs

and the AU agenda; and 3) the need to increase technical capacity and mainstreaming NCA into

planning processes.

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ANNEX 4: FEEDBACK FROM PARTICIPANTS ON THE SHAPE OF THE COMMUNITY OF

PRACTICE

As noted in the agenda (Annex 1), the Forum was structured to allow for the participants to

provides targeted inputs at three points during the day:

1) Following the presentation on ‘Natural Capital Accounting in Africa’, contributions

were invited from the floor for about 20 minutes;

2) Across two break-out sessions in the afternoon, participants discussed what an African

Community of Practice should do and how such a Community of Practice could be

organised (Tables 1 and 2, below).

3) In a closing plenary session, facilitated by the GDSA Secretariat, final contributions

were provided from participants.

We summarise those contributions, below.

Contributions from the floor (morning sessions):

The contributions from the floor following the morning presentation regarding ‘Natural Capital

Accounting in Africa’ focused primarily on the opportunities and hurdles for NCA, from the

perspective of c. 12 government delegates or delegates from international institutions based

in Africa. The comments raised are noted here, as they provide an indication of the kinds of

topics that might be addressed through a Community of Practice:

• Nigeria: It would be important to leverage funding for NCA from other

projects/interventions. How can we trigger the movement of information the national

level to the local level?

• World Bank, Rwanda: It is very critical to have a stakeholder prioritization exercise at

the beginning of work to ensure that findings are linked to priorities. NCA can

measure progress directly to the SDGs as well as climate-related indicators, and this is

an important opportunity for NCA.

• South Africa: Taking raw data and turning it into NCA is not always possible. From a

project management perspective, it is important to have individuals whose job

descriptions include NCA. Within South Africa, there are good working relationships

across the entities doing NCA, and this is important. However, there remains a

concern that NCA can be produced on a regular basis.

• Kenya: NCA takes time and the next is visualisation of the information that is critically

important so as to better convey the information and create an appetite for NCA.

Coordination is critically important between agencies. If we work together as a region,

under a Community of Practice, we will be able to do NCA faster.

• Senegal: In Senegal, there is a policy angle for NCA but there is a need to also further

include the private sector who are interested in the information that NCA presents

from a business perspective.

• Lesotho: Existing data can be leveraged in Lesotho to develop NCA. For the Community

of Practice, can we leave here with a commitment to help with data and information

sharing? The issue of a Community of Practice should be committed to fully as it adds

value to our work.

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• Madagascar: One of the first countries to work on WAVES. However, the government

did not continue working on WAVES because it wasn’t convinced that there was

enough value in NCA. How can we better inform governments that NCA is a priority?

In addition, it would be important to synchronise different initiatives happening within

a country.

• Uganda: Uganda is developing several accounts and through this has learned that it is

critical to identify entry points as well as indicators useful to decision-makers. It is

important to have ‘champions’ and for there to be institutional collaboration,

academic and private sector involvement, and support from international

organisations. They recognised and thanked UNEP-WCMC, World Bank, and UNSD for

support.

• Botswana: Botswana has been developing accounts for more than six years , initially

supported by WAVES. It is now difficult to get the resources to continue developing

the accounts and they also face issues of data availability. This Community of Practice

will help us as a region.

• Mozambique: A community of practice could eventually help with the sharing of

information in Portuguese as many documents are only available in the English

language.

Contributions made during the afternoon break-out sessions:

The agenda included space for two break-out sessions (Annex 1), designed to promote

discussion on different aspects of the NCA Community of Practice. The feedback collected

from participants is captured in Tables 1 and 2, below.

Contributions made during the closing plenary:

The following contributions were noted from participants during the plenary, in regards to

setting up the Community of Practice:

• Nigeria: can there been a declaration on natural capital coming out of this workshop,

so that we can ensure there is a Community of Practice which is implemented? Also, a

meeting in November 2021 would be good. Provided a suggestion that a small team

works with the Secretariat to ensure implementation of this Community of Practice.

• Peter Katanisa (Rwanda/World Bank): It would be best to have clarity on who the host

Secretariat is and make sure that that entity has a person in charge of this Community

of Practice. It would also be good to suggest a month/year for the next meeting.

Finally, it would be good to convene a small volunteer team to support the GDSA in

putting activities together for the Community of Practice as it ramps up.

• UNSD: UNECA has offered to host the platform, and hence there is a request to hold

on deciding who the convener/coordinator of the Community of Practice would be.

• Malawi: We would like to ensure that the organizers liaise with the GDSA to organize

this Community of Practice.

22 January 2020 | of 57

• Uganda: In principle, all of the 17 countries present agree to be part of the

Community of Practice. This can be a good starting point for the Forum organizers.

• Benoit Blarel (World Bank): suggested a small working group to develop a roadmap for

the NCA Community of Practice, with people from the room self-nominating to

participate in that group.

22 January 2020 | of 57

Table 2: Suggestions from the first break out session on the purpose of a Community of Practice, as well as potential activities.

Private Sector Break-out Group Landscape Break-out Group Policy Break-out Group Statistics/Data Break-out Group

Is there demand for an NCA

Community of Practice?

Yes Yes Yes Yes

What should be the purpose of an

Africa-wide NCA Community of

Practice?

• The benefits outweigh the costs

• Can improve political will for

NCA at national level

• Helps with aligning NCA works to

international commitments

• Save time + resources from

coming together

• Can help countries benchmark

against each other

• Make NCA attractive to decision

makers

• Demonstrate value of NCA +

catalyse process of NCA

• Platform to share experience +

for advocacy

• Platform to support decisions

taken at a higher level (e.g. AU,

AMCEN)

• Sharing experiences

• Collaborative communication

• Management of data sources

• Statistical capacity building

• Regional strategies on action plans

for NCA to align with AU Agenda

2063 and NSDS

• Provide technical support to all

African countries on NCA

• Provide innovative financing for

NCA

• Help develop a business case to

support private sector/INGOS

• Peer pressure to drive NCA in

other African countries

• Ensure linkages to other related

projects with NCA (e.g. BIOPAMA)

• Ensuring international initiatives

are aligned

What should be the main activities of an Africa-wide NCA Community of Practice?

Networking and dialogue X X X

Annual forum/meeting X (a “must”) X (potentially also by region) X

Annual/quarterly bulletin X

Online platform for engagement +

Social Media tools

X X

Database of members of the

Community of Practice

X

Linking to other/existing Communities

of Practice

X

22 January 2020 | of 57

Presence at other conferences and

meetings (e.g. side events,

presentations)

X (exhibition table) X

Collective learning and co-generation

of knowledge

X X X

Collect best practices + share them

(including connecting with new

groups of stakeholders)

X X

Development of case studies X X

Webinars X

Resource hub/depository X (“online materials”) X X

Working groups X (private sector) X (for transboundary issues) X (for cross-cutting issues)

Peer review of documents X

Joint capacity development X X X

Supporting national fora across

continent

X

Workshops/trainings to address

topical issues

X X X

Joint advocacy and strategy X X

Inclusion of civil society in Community

of Practice

X

Use convening power of African

Union to influence policy + identifying

high-level policy entry points

X X

Peer-to-peer exchange, coaching,

and mentoring

X X X X

Inter-country learning + south-south

exchanges

X X X

Other ideas

Joint resource mobilisation X

22 January 2020 | of 57

Action plans and roadmaps at the

national level

X

Table 3: Suggestions from the second break-out session, on governance issues and how a Community of Practice might function.

Private Sector Break-out Group Landscape Break-out Group Policy Break-out Group Statistics/Data Break-out Group

Membership • Share membership list and

criteria

• Shared ownership + inclusive

• Individual institutions and

champions welcome

• From the private sector,

participation can initially start

within the CSR department but

move out of this department

in Year 2 and onwards

• Country level: whatever entity is

leading NCA efforts (potentially two

levels of participation, including

political and technical?)

• Should be open to all African countries

• Could be defined by working groups

with Focal Points within each country

• Individuals, governments,

institutions (e.g. academic, civil

society, NGOs)

• Should be broad and inclusive

• Can be benchmarked against

existing Communities of Practice in

Africa

• All African countries

• Two focal points per country

(one primary and one

alternate). There are many

ministries within a government

from which the focal points

can come. The focal points

should have a technical

understanding of NCA and a

TOR is to be developed for

their duties.

Coordination • Regional hub(s) with links to

the AU

• Can learn from others (e.g. the

Circular Economy Forum)

• Could be placed under a

neutral convening hub (e.g.

GDSA, World Bank, Natural

Capital Coalition)

• Rules of engagement to be

determined based on common vision

• Two focal points per country (one

technical; one policy)

• Suggestion for the GDSA

Secretariat to host the Community

of Practice

• Should initially be an English-

language Community of Practice,

even as non-English speaking

countries would be welcome

• Should be under a regional

organisation (CI, UNECA, AfDB,

AU, etc.)

Operating Principles • Non-hierarchical + every member

is an equal participant

• Safe space for participants as

individuals and as institutions to

express ideas and opinions

• Engagement, inclusive,

standardization, advocacy

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Links to other networks

and existing

Communities of

Practice

• Should also include private

finance arms and/or the

regional networks of the AfDB,

IUCN, DFID, WBCSD, AU, WEF,

UNEP-FI, IFC, World Bank,

Business 4 Nature

• Map linkages to other

activities/relevant networks

• Connect to other regional

Communities of Practice both

within Africa and elsewhere

• Link to other organisations

(e.g. CI, IUCN)

What should be in a

first-year workplan?

(e.g. quick and easy

wins)

Year 1:

• Create a working group for the

private sector

• Map current practices and

gather information for

compelling case studies

Year 2: Capacity building, and

identifying areas where businesses

could be better ‘trained’. Working

to understand how businesses can

use data from NCA to inform their

assessments. Start providing

businesses with a safe, trusting

space to discuss this issue. It is

important to engage beyond the

CSR department.

Year 3: Scaling and incentives, and

begin discussion on policy drivers.

Begin thinking about how to scale

things like green bonds and begin

discussion on topics like value

chains and mandatory vs. voluntary

efforts.

Longer-term: Is there a way to have

standard business accounts that are

compatible to the SEEA? Can this be

linked to international standards?

• Identify Focal Points (within a few

months)

• Develop data/info depository for

sharing with Focal Points and others

• Define representation structure (e.g.

hierarchy)

• Designate coordinator/convener

• Identify funding/mobilise resources

• Assessment of training need within the

region

• Delivery of training(s) recognising

differences in experience within Africa

(both of the production and use of

accounts)

• Stock take of what is happening on

NCA, including uptake and

mainstreaming

• Identify and engage key NCA decision

makers

• Convene annual face-to-face meeting

• Regular information sharing

• Bilateral exchanges/south-south visits

• Beyond the first year, it would be

beneficial to showcase Africa NCA

experience

• Establishment of GDSA as host

institution

• Develop TOR for Focal Points

• Identification of Focal Points in

countries

• Establish online platform (e.g.

WhatsApp) and a page on the

GDSA website

• Survey to map out other

Communities of Practice and how

they engage (+ opportunities they

can provide)

• Database of members

• Links on Community of Practice

website to the WAVES Knowledge

Platform and SEEA website

• Focal Points to convene small

meetings in their countries and

prepare 2-page brief on NCA in the

country and the next steps on NCA

• Usage of social media tools

(e.g. Facebook page, twitter

account; WhatsApp)

• collaborative tools (slack

• web portal to be hosted by

UNECA

• annual face-to-face meeting

• inclusion of the COP activities

in the agenda of planners and

statisticians conferences

• conduct webinars and online

meetings for training

• adapting the global strategy to

align with Agenda 2063 for

NCA

• conduct capacity building

events

• conduct peer review

• develop a repository for NCA

• create working groups/task

forces or cross cutting issues;

and

• a coordinator to serve as

Secretariat.

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ANNEX 5: INTERIM WORKING GROUP FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NCA

COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

The following individuals self-nominated to join the interim Working Group for the

Establishment of the NCA Community of Practice:

• Peter Katanisa (World Bank, Rwanda)

• Zacharia Magombo (Malawi)

• Sonigitu Ekpe (Nigeria)

• Imane Loudiyi (Morocco)

• Mandy Driver (South Africa)

• Ignela Sahondra Randriantsizafy (Madagascar)

• Evelyn Atuhaire (Uganda)

• Nick Conner (IUCN)

• Marie Fabienne Randrianarisoa (Madagascar)

• Christine Magu (Kenya)

• Teresa Magalhaes Pinto (Mozambique)

• Bathusi Segobai (Botswana)

• Kennedy Olwasi (Kenya)

towards a regional community of practice in …...towards a regional community of practice in...

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